Meet the buffalo treehopper—a tiny architect of the treetops. With its distinct, bison-like shape and vibrant green color, this intriguing insect catches the eye of many insect lovers. Let’s dive into the life of this bug and uncover some of its interesting facts.
Scientific name: Stictocephala bisonia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha
Family: Membracidae
Genus: Stictocephala
They look like a bison
The Buffalo treehopper, also known as Stictocephala bisonia or sometimes Ceresa bisonia, is a species of treehopper. It’s a small, bright green insect from the Smiliinae subfamily. It’s about 6-8 millimeters long and has a unique triangular shape that looks like a tiny American bison, which is how it got its name.
These treehoppers have clear wings and a spiny texture that helps them blend in with twigs and thorns, making them hard to spot. The nymphs are similar to the adults but lack wings and have more spikes on their bodies.
Habitat
The buffalo treehopper is native to North America but has become widely distributed in southern Europe, the Near East, and North Africa. It lives on many types of deciduous trees, such as peach, apple, ash, and elm.
Buffalo treehopper diet
This bug feeds on the sap of various plants, such as goldenrod, black locust, elm, clover, and willow. The nymphs have a softer diet, eating weeds, grasses, and other nonwoody plants. Due to this feeding and egg-laying habit, the hopper is considered a pest.
It is eaten by various predators, including predatory insects, birds, and other small predators like the egg parasite Polynema striaticorne. This parasite targets the treehopper’s eggs, helping to keep their population in check.
Life cycle
The buffalo treehopper mates in the summer. Males catch the attention of females by producing a unique song that the females sense as vibrations in the plants around them, not through the air like regular sounds. After mating, from July to October, females lay up to twelve eggs. They use a sharp ovipositor to insert these eggs into small cuts they make in the bark of various trees, including pear, prune, cherry, apple, and quince.
The nymphs of the buffalo treehopper spend the winter dormant and hatch in May or June. They look like wingless adults but are spikier. After hatching, they climb down from the trees to feed on grasses and weeds. Over about a month and a half, they molt several times as they grow. Once they reach adulthood, they move back up into the trees to complete their life cycle. The lifespan of an adult buffalo treehopper only lasts for a few months.
